The 98th Oscar Awards are a wrap, and here’s my take on awards, such as Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Picture, and more.
Conan O’Brien hosted the Oscars for a second time, and I think he did a decent job. Most of the time, hosts just stand up there and try to make the audience laugh at cringy jokes, but O’Brien was actually pretty entertaining.
One part that I noticed throughout the awards was the thank-you speeches. They went on for a very long time, especially when the winners were thanking a list of people. As the show went on, the hosts started to speed up the pace. The technology crew would cut off the microphone and start playing music while people were still talking. The most noticeable time was when the “K-Pop Demon Hunters” song “Golden” won an Oscar for Best Original Song. After one speech was spoken, co-songwriter Yu Han Lee began to speak and was immediately cut off from speaking. He was visibly talking into the microphone, but you couldn’t hear anything because they were playing music and the microphone was cut off.
This year, the Oscars introduced a new award called “Best Achievement in Casting,” honoring the casting directors of a specific film. The award focuses on which movie assigned the right people to the right roles and overall fit the needs of those roles. Casting director Cassandra Kulukundis (“One Battle After Another”) was the first person to ever win the award. Other nominees included Nina Gold (“Hamnet”), Jennifer Venditti (“Marty Supreme”), Gabriel Domingues (“The Secret Agent”), and Francine Maisler (“Sinners”). The cast of “One Battle After Another” includes actors and actresses such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Teyana Taylor, Benicio del Toro and more.
Michael B. Jordan (“Sinners”) won Best Actor in a Leading Role. Other nominees included: Timothée Chalamet (“Marty Supreme”), Leonardo DiCaprio (“One Battle After Another”), Wagner Moura (“The Secret Agent”) and Ethan Hawke (“Blue Moon”). I think Jordan winning was expected, but also well deserved. Sinners, a supernatural film involving two brothers who returned to their hometown in Mississippi after leaving Chicago, was popular among viewers.
Jessie Buckley (“Hamnet”) won Best Actress in a Leading Role. Other nominees included Emma Stone (“Bugonia”), Rose Byrne (“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”), Renate Reinsve (“Sentimental Value”) and Kate Hudson (“Song Sung Blue”). I was a little surprised that Buckley won. I mean, don’t get me wrong, she deserves it, but I haven’t heard too much talk about her or “Hamnet” personally. “Hamnet” is a story based on the lives of Agnes and William Shakespeare after the death of their 11-year-old son.
“One Battle After Another” won the award for Best Picture. Other nominees included: “The Secret Agent,” “Bugonia,” “Marty Supreme,” “Train Dreams,” “F1,” “Sinners,” “Frankenstein,” “Hamnet” and “Sentimental Value.” I wasn’t surprised at all, as the film had already won the award for Best Achievement in Casting and was nominated for several others. “One Battle After Another” is about an ex-revolutionary living a simple life, but then he has to go rescue his daughter when she goes missing.
Overall, I think the Oscars were a success and all the nominees and winners deserved their awards and nominations.
